Much of the actual font technology finds its origin in the IKARUS system, invented by Dr. Peter Karow in the early 1970’s and developed till this day by URW++ Design & Development GmbH under supervision of Dr. Jürgen Willrodt. A historical overview and explanation of more than thirty years of Spitzentechnologie by URW++’s managing director, who was directly engaged in the IKARUS development over the past thirty-five years.

Peter Rosenfeld started, after finishing his business studies in 1980, his first position in the font production department at Dr. Hell in Kiel. It was there where he first got in touch with digital type. Peter joined URW Software & Type GmbH in Hamburg in 1982 and a little later he became the manager of the URW font studio. He worked very closely for and with Dr. Peter Karow, the visioneer and pioneer of the type industry. Roughly ten years after joining URW, Peter became Managing Director of URW++ Design & Development GmbH and the company has established itself in the graphic design industry by continually developing and marketing innovative font products and related software.